Koekkoek in for Pelech on Canada WJC camp roster

Koekkoek in for Pelech on Canada WJC camp rosterHockey Canada on Monday announced defenseman Slater Koekkoek has been added to the team's summer junior development camp.

Hockey Canada on Monday announced defenseman Slater Koekkoek has been added to the team's summer junior development camp.

The camp will run Aug. 3-10, with the first two days held in Brossard, Quebec. The final five days will be spent in Lake Placid, N.Y., where the team will practice and play exhibition games against teams from the United States, Sweden and Finland as part of USA Hockey's National Junior Evaluation Camp.

The summer camp is the first step in filling out the roster that will play for Canada at the 2014 IIHF World Junior Championship, which will be held Dec. 26 to Jan. 5, 2014, in Malmo, Sweden. Canada finished fourth at last year's tournament, the first time since 1998 that Canada failed to win a medal at the elite under-20 international tournament.

Koekkoek, selected by the Tampa Bay Lightning with the 10th pick of the 2012 NHL Draft, had 29 points in 42 total games last season split between the Peterborough Petes and Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League.

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I don't have a crystal ball. Predicting is a real complicated thing. If we stay healthy, have enough depth and get the good goaltending we think we're going to have, you can go all the way. But a lot of things have to happen. There's going to be a lot of teams that think the same thing. Everyone made deals. We're all are optimistic about where we'll end up.

— Rangers general manager Glen Sather after being asked if he's constructed a team that can win the Stanley Cup before their 4-1 win against the Predators on Monday